Literature Review 1

Brianna Coyle
Shelby Stanard
ENG 1201:5B4
2021, July 17
Literature Review
Have you ever thought to yourself, “Am I happy?” Hopefully you are, but how can you tell. Or
more importantly, how can you prove that you are happy. Everyone can experience happiness in multiple
different forms. Different things make different people happy, and others do not always enjoy what
someone else does. My question for my research essay is, “How can someone accomplish living the life
that they want to, and are you currently living a life that you enjoy?”
Happiness has had a major decline since the early 1990’s. When the United States had an
economy boost in 2006 that ended the Great Recession, they thought that would help increase the data of
how people felt and if they were happy or not (The Washington Post). The things that make us happy
change tremendously over time. The way we feel affects how we live our day to day life, and has a
measure of success and accomplishment that we hold on too. We can all come to an agreement that our
happiness in today’s world is the media that we consume constantly throughout our day. Before then,
happiness was gained with life experiences and memories made. They have also linked happiness based
on what political party you stand with. Republicans tend to have a consistent happiness rate over
Democrats since the 1970’s (The Washington Post).
A common theme that is seen throughout my sources is that happiness and living a life that you
feel is successful all comes from what our big need is, and that is society. Our social needs as human
beings are very important and have a big role that they take on when it comes to how we perceive life and
what we think happiness is and where we get it from.
Happiness and successfulness comes from a plethora of different things in life. The two types of
happiness are hedonia and eudaimonia. There are different subforms of happiness like our emotions.
These can include, joy, excitement, gratitude, pride, optimism and contentment (Cherry). People will
experience these emotions differently based on how we react with what is constantly surrounding us.
Something that may bring someone joy may bring the exact opposite to someone else.
One of the lines in the 2006 film The Pursuit of Happyness, a line towards the end reads, “I was
gambling, during all this, that I could get back on my way to being one, which I guessed would feel like
happiness.” (Pursuit). This makes me wonder what his happiness and accomplishing life looked like to
him. This movie does a great representation of showing how people in different social classes perceive
happiness and what reaching their goals looks like to them.
In conclusion, the overall theme of many of my sources is that happiness comes from how we
view society and what it has to offer us. This is different for everyone because society is always changing
and the culture that everyone lives in is never the same. Individuals will sometimes have a culture shock
from experiencing different things and forms of happiness. It is good for us to learn that everyone is going
to be happy in different ways and see accomplishments in different ways, when it all comes to a
middleground of how we view the world.

Works Cited
Black, Todd, et al. The Pursuit of Happyness. Sony Pictures Entertainment, 2006.
Buijs, Vera L., et al. “Social Needs and Happiness: A Life Course Perspective.” Journal of
Happiness Studies, Springer Netherlands, 10 July 2020,
link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10902-020-00287-9.
Cherry, Kendra. “How Do Psychologists Define Happiness?” Verywell Mind, 26 Oct. 2020,
www.verywellmind.com/what-is-happiness-4869755.
Holson, Laura M. “Are We Living in a Post-Happiness World?” The New York Times, 28 Sept.
2019.
Ingraham, Christopher. “Americans Are Getting More Miserable, and There's Data to Prove It.”
The Washington Post, WP Company, 22 Mar. 2019,
www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/03/22/americans-
are-getting-more-miserable-theres-data-prove-it/.

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Brianna Coyle

Democrats since the 1970’s (The Washington Post).

what we think happiness is and where we get it from.

happiness and what reaching their goals looks like to them.

middleground of how we view the world.

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